Sympathy for A Sad Lizard
by RandallBeast19
Summary: Mike's been captured by Randall, though as he appeals to his captor's mercy, he discovers all the sadness and pain his former best friend has kept within him all this time, finding out what happened to Randall after he and Sully were expelled and gaining sympathy upon seeing the monster buried beneath the bitter and cold shell.


**Let's write a more emotional take on Mike and Randall with that scene where Mike's introduced to the Scream Extractor and Randall reveals his true goal, but also interrogate him. I say it's time to add onto this little scene, by adding some sympathy towards Randall and his reasons behind all this.**

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**~Sympathy for A Sad Lizard~**

It seemed like all the troubles were over, the kid was back in their possession and nobody suspected a thing. Randall and Fungus carried the crate over towards the chair, as the monster inside fell out and onto the chair, revealed to be none other than Mike Wazowski.

The revelation was an utter shock to both Randall and Fungus, with the latter nervously shaking. "WAZOWSKI!" Randall shouted, shocked, before turning to anger and stepping towards the beach ball. "Where is it, you little one-eyed cretin?!" He demanded as he poked Mike for information.

"Okay, first of all." Mike sat up in the chair as he talked. "It's Cree-tin. If you're gonna threaten me, do it properly." Randall was just annoyed. "Second of all, you're nuts if you think kidnapping me is going to help you, cheat your way to the top!"

Randall chuckled evilly, and questioned darkly, "You still think this is about that stupid scare record?" Mike's blood went cold upon hearing the sinister tone coming from the lizard monster's mouth.

"Well...I did, right until you chuckled like that and now I'm thinking I should just get out of here." Mike said, fear present in his voice, as he attempts to get up, though a bar came down and kept him seated.

Randall then locked Mike into the chair as he reveals his true goals, "I'm about to revolutionize the scaring industry. And when I do, even the great James P. Sullivan is going to be working for me."

If Mike wasn't already truly afraid of Randall, he for sure now was terrified, though tried to keep his composure. "Well, someone's certainly been a busy bee." He fearfully said.

Randall narrowed his eyes and threateningly pointed his finger at the restrained monster. "First, I need to know where the kid is, and you're going to tell me." He ordered Mike.

"Yeah, I don't know anything." Mike told his captor.

"Uh-huh, sure." came Randall, sarcasm in his voice. Fungus got into his seat and quickly went to work. "I don't. I mean, I don't." Mike begged them.

Metal grinding and the sound of doors opening, Mike and Randall looked to a large machine emerging from the ceiling, with Mike doing everything he can to possibly appeal to Randall's mercy, or whatever ounce of compassion he had left inside him.

"Hey, Randall!" Mike screamed, as the machine inches closer and closer towards him.

Once the device was right in front of Mike, Randall proudly patted the machine and introduced the creation towards his hostage. "Say hello to the Scream Extractor."

"Hello." Mike introduced himself to the machine, noticing Randall walking away towards the control panel. "Hey, come on, where you going?"

Mike's pleas for mercy went on deaf ears, Randall wasn't having any of it and pushed Fungus aside, taking control. The evil grin plastered on Randall's face only grew with each second the machine inched closer and closer towards sucking the screams from the small monster's body.

Unknown to everyone in the room, Sully and Boo had found themselves inside and were watching the whole thing, with Sully getting ready to turn the machine off and save his friend from possibly being harmed by the strange machine.

"Randall, stop, you can't do this! Please!" begged Mike, the device pulled at his mouth like a vacuum cleaner. "You were supposed to be my best friend, not this creepy psychopath!"

At the mention of that, Randall growled and shut the controls off, as the Scream Extractor was just seconds away from extracting the screams from their first test subject. Fungus was confused, but didn't question Randall, only taking notice of a weird expression forming on the lizard monster's face.

"Your best friend?" scoffed Randall, venom coming from his mouth as he spat. "That's funny, Mike. Real funny. That might be possibly your first joke to ever make me crack a chuckle!"

Thankfully, he hadn't been murdered, yet anyway. But the words struck a nerve within the smaller monster, his single eye narrowed and he screamed. "What are you saying, lizard boy? You were my roommate and best friend during college, but now, look at the creep you've become!"

Randall slowly advanced upon the restrained monster, his eyes narrowing and the hate shining strongly within them, as he slapped Mike right across the face, causing Sully to shield Boo's eyes from the assault and wince seeing his best friend getting hit.

"Ow! What was that for?" said Mike, rubbing the spot where Randall struck him.

Randall's fuming. How dare this pathetic excuse of a monster even speak about friendship to him. He brought his arm up to smack the monster again, but shrugged and lowered his arm, hearing Mike let out a relived sigh.

"You and Sullivan are the reason I become this way!" screamed Randall, causing Fungus to scream and fall from his seat. "You two ruined my life and made me a joke to everyone in this fucking company!"

Mike rolled his eye and mocked the angered lizard monster. "'You and Sullivan are the reason I become this way!' Don't even try to make me laugh, creep! You've always been nothing but a hateful and jealous little psychopath that believes he's entitled to everything! You aren't anything but a evil and heartless piece of garbage that deserves to be banished!"

The anger present in Randall's expression almost made Mike wanna take back what he said. The hate coming from Randall was so intense, he feared his captor was gonna jump at him and strangle the life from him.

But, Randall's anger faded and one of sadness and hurt formed, Randall's tone even changed slightly. "I could say the same about you, my old chum." He said, a hint of mockery at the word 'chum'.

"Ah yes! I remember when you said we'd be best chums, but you abandoned me for those jerks, pulled that prank on me and my team, and then acted like you were king of the Monster World just because you got to wear one of those stupid red jackets!" angrily spat Mike, remembering all the crap Randall put him through back in college.

Randall thought back to his painful memories at MU from being humiliated at a party due to Mike's actions to being kicked from his fraternity and disgraced by the one monster who made him lose everything in the Scare Games.

"Really now? You were such a great friend to me, weren't you, Mike Wazowski?" hissed Randall. "I remember all the good times I had with you, from when you ruined my cupcakes and made me a laughing stock in front of everyone at the party, to completely ignoring me once I joined another fraternity, or when your new best friend caused me to lose the Scare Games! Yes, you were such a good friend to me!"

Mike froze for a moment, thinking back to how Randall was originally. A shy and timid somewhat nervous and nerdy monster wearing glasses, the same Randall he was once friends with and all the times they spent living together, studying and practicing their scare tactics. He them remembered the betrayal, Randall joining Johnny and helping with that prank, and his anger came back in full.

Mike screamed and fought against the restraints holding him, "You weren't even that good of a friend to me, lizard boy! What did you do for me? Nothing, that's what! You joined those bunch of jerks and pulled that prank on us!"

"Nothing? I helped your egotistical ass study for months, listened to you ramble on and on about your stupid checklist of goals, tried multiple times to spend time with you, only for you to focus on the books and leave me completely alone!" screamed Randall, angrily. "When I made those cupcakes for that party, I wanted to make more friends and get accepted by the other monsters, but no, you had to come on in and ruin those cupcakes, even worse, they spelled lame, making all of the other monsters see me as nothing but a stupid joke!"

"On and on about that one time incident back like around ten years ago? Wow, really shows what a creep you are when it comes to not letting go of the past!" remarked Mike, laughing as he remembered the cupcake incident. "And I don't know, I think lame summarizes you quiet nicely, don't you think?"

Screaming, Randall grabbed Mike's arms and pressed his head against the other monster, growling as Mike sees straight into Randall's hurt and sad eyes, seeing the pain, sorrow, and despair present within the lizard monster's eyes.

"Fuck you! Do you not even care about all the hell I've been through because of you and Sullivan? Did you never value me as anything more than some disposable tool meant to be thrown out? Did you just use me to further advance your stupid, unrealistic goal?! Am I really that beneath you?" growled Randall, pulling away from the monster and clutching his chest, panting a bit.

Randall's blood pressure was starting to rise. He could hardly believe just how angry Mike was making him, even Fungus was surprised to see Randall like this, but choose to stay silent as to not provoke him any further. He took a deep breath for a couple seconds, before calming himself down.

"Do you have any idea what happened to me after you were expelled?" questioned Randall.

"None at all." replied Mike.

Part of Randall wanted to test the Scream Extractor out on this annoying beach ball, though another part of him had other ideas. He couldn't believe that he's sink so low as to revealing his own pain to one of his worst enemies, his former best friend!

"After you and Sullivan left, I lost everything." revealed Randall, sorrow present in his voice, with Mike gasping as he saw something in the lizard monster's eyes begin to form. "Johnny and his fraternity kicked me out, stripped me of everything and became my tormentors. I was bullied and harassed endlessly, no matter what class I was in, even in my dorm I wasn't safe, I was always attacked! I lived in constant fear, always worried that whenever I left my dorm, they'd be right there ready to torture me!"

Mike stayed silent, his own anger slowly fading away to shock. Randall was bullied after he left? He remembered when Randall first came to work at Monsters Inc. how shattered and broken he was, the innocence and kindness was replaced by anger and bitterness, the hope in his eyes was replaced by hate, anger, and sorrow. All light was gone, he'd become a bitter husk of his former self.

Randall turned away as he continued, he refused to cry in front of his enemy. "Because of my loss, Johnny's reputation was forever tainted by my loss, he called me a blight upon his very pride, a disease that needed to be purged and that my whole existence was just a massive insult upon him."

A new feeling crept over Mike, it was sympathy. Every word that came from Randall was filled with sorrow, bitterness, and even a hint of anger. He was still restrained, so he couldn't do anything but listen as the lizard monster continued.

"I became a social pariah on campus, because of my loss, nobody wanted anything to do with me. I tried reaching out to others, but everyone I tried to talk to just ignored me and called me a failure of a monster, so I became increasingly alone and isolated. Tell me, Wazowski, how would you like having to sit alone everyday at lunch because everyone hates your guts?" He asked.

"Well, I probably wouldn't like it one bit, probably try to crack the gloomy mood with a joke or something." answered Mike.

"I spent years battling depression, the loneliness and isolation even made me consider suicide at times. I felt so dead inside at times, I even wanted to entertain the thought of killing myself." revealed Randall, a few tears already beginning to fall from his eyes as he spoke. "I took what everyone said to heart, I was a failure, a joke, and a plight upon monster kind."

Depression? Suicide? Guilt began to take hold of Mike, as he looked at the now crying monster in his presence. He didn't feel anger or hate towards him anymore, he felt sorry for him.

"Randall...I never knew." came Mike's voice, catching Randall's attention. It sounded sympathetic.

"Stop. I don't need your pity, Wazowski. Just tell me where the kid is and I'll let you go." said Randall, wiping tears away from his eyes.

Mike had no intention of revealing Boo to them, this machine seemed like it was bad news and whatever Randall was planning, it didn't seem like it would bode well for the child. However, he might be able to put an end to this, perhaps, if he can appeal further to Randall.

He decided to press Randall further, it was the best thing he could do to keep him talking. "I take it your time here in Monsters Inc. wasn't any better? I mean, being the runner-up to Sully is a pretty good achievement and being a natural born monster perfect for scaring children."

"You think so? Not even close. Because I always remained in Sullivan's shadow, all the monsters just forgot that I even existed and went on to deliver praise upon the blue idiot, all of the monsters here were allover him and loved him. It didn't matter that I remain in second, I was still nothing but a joke to the other monsters here. I still eat alone. I was nothing when it came to Sullivan, just a runner-up and nobody cares about the runner-up."

"What about Waternoose? He must appreciate your talents?" said Mike.

Hearing his boss's name brought up, Randall knew he couldn't reveal the old fool's involvement in the conspiracy, if it was revealed that the CEO of Monsters Inc. was involved, it would be a disaster for the company.

"The old fool could give two fucks about me, he only cares about Sullivan and his obsession with the energy crisis. I work my tail off nonstop, put my free time, my wants and interests, and even my health aside for the good of this company only for him to completely ignore me and constantly kiss Sullivan's ass at every chance he gets. I wouldn't be surprised if he was gay for the big blue idiot! I might even hate him more than I do Sullivan!"

"Is that why you're building this here thing?" questioned Mike, pointing towards the device still near him.

Randall turned around and nodded, having Fungus get back at the controls and have the machine brought away from the captured monster. Mike breathed a sigh of relief, happy that he didn't seem in anymore danger.

"Scaring kids like we do just isn't cutting things anymore, so I invented the Scream Extractor in order to get screams more efficiently, ending the energy crisis our city's facing. It's gonna finally give me the respect and praise I deserve, I'll be a hero to the city and be the one to save this company, one day even own Monsters Inc. and show everyone that I'm not a joke." revealed Randall, his true motives out for Mike to see.

"Randall..." whispered Mike.

"Alright, enough talk, Wazowski, I've been nice enough to not forcibly extract your screams, so be a good little monster and tell me where the kid is." said Randall, his voice sounding far less hostile than before.

It finally hit Mike, as he remembered never really spending much time with Randall, ruining his cupcakes at the party, wanting him to join Oozma Kappa just so they could have a sixth member and compete in the Scare Games, and just how he'd taken him for granted all those years ago, showing him nothing but mockery and disrespect now. A tear began forming as he caught Randall's attention.

"Randy..., I'm sorry." was all Mike said, hanging his head low and closing his eye, a single tear escaping and falling onto the bar.

Randall froze when he saw the tear fall and his eyes widen, feeling his heart skip a beat when he heard his old nickname. It sounded so genuine and sincere, as Randall felt tears forming in his eyes and his own lips quivering. Fungus was utterly shocked at what he's seeing happen to his partner.

"What did you just say...?" whispered Randall, the tears building more and more. It was becoming increasingly harder to not cry, his emotions were allover the place.

"I'm sorry for everything." replied Mike, turning back up and looking at the tearful lizard monster. "I should've been a better friend for you, been there for you, stuck up for you, and not just been so caught up in my own goals and ambitions. I took your compassion and friendship for granted, I was your best chum, but in reality, I was the worst friend ever to you, Randy. I'm so sorry for this. For everything."

Randall broke down upon hearing that. He couldn't hold the tears back, the floodgates had opened. He broke down and fell to the floor, sobbing heavily and the tears streaming down his eyes, as he whimpered and cried hard, the pain in his cries was evident. Mike could see the hurt within the lizard monster.

Both Mike and Fungus were quite shocked, neither of them expected the hardened Randall Boggs to have suffered a mental breakdown and on the floor sobbing his eyes out, even Sully was shocked at what he saw. He thought like Mike was Randall was a creep, but he's actually, a very troubled and complicated monster that needs help.

Randall's pain-filled sobs and cries grew louder and louder, as he curled around himself, with Mike fighting against the restraints as much as he could, turning to Fungus and looking at him, pleading for the lizard monster's assistant to get him out.

"I'm sorry, Wazowski, but Randall said I'm not allowed to fraternize with victims of his evil plot." said Fungus, full of regret that he's even part of this.

"Just undo these restraints and get me outta here, I've got to help Randall, Fungus, please!" begged Mike, as Fungus looked in his eye and slowly nodded, getting at the controls, as the shackles were released and the bar raised, freeing the smaller monster.

Looking back at Randall, Mike thought about making a break for it, but abandoned that. He walked over to the sobbing lizard monster, slowly kneeling down towards him, a sympathetic and sad expression on his face, reaching his arms out towards him.

A surprise that made Sully and Fungus's eyes widen, Mike grabbed Randall and slowly pulled him close, shuddering as he felt the reptilian monster's body against his and pulled him in close, putting his arms around him to hold him, as Randall cried and sobbed into the smaller monster who's holding him.

"Randall..." whispered Mike, as Randall looked at him, he attempted to wipe the tears away, but more came as he broke down.

"Why are you doing this, Wazowski? You hate me..." sniffled Randall, more painful cries erupted from him.

"Not anymore." was all Mike said, before he took a deep breath and went for it.

Mike threw himself at Randall, wrapping both of his arms around the lizard monster in a tight and very warm hug, feeling Randall stiffen and squirm, though he quickly brought all four of his arms around the smaller monster to hug him back. It was a weird feeling, so awkward for both monsters, Mike never thought in a million years he'd be hugging and comforting the monster he least expected to feel even a bit of sympathy for.

The hug lasted for as long as Randall cried, Mike ignoring the fact he's soaked with tears as he allows the lizard monster to cry all of his pain and sorrow away. Mike looked back into Randall's slightly redden yet sad eyes, seeing a glimpse of a light within Randall's eyes, pressing his head against Randall's, as they both stayed embraced.

"Mike..." whispered Randall, still crying as he felt the hug tighten a bit to further comfort him.

Finally, Mike and Randall parted, with Randall drying his eyes and sniffling a bit, looking back at Mike with a new and yet familiar feeling creeping over him, he then turned back towards the chair and then at Fungus at the control panel.

"I'll find the kid myself, no point in keeping him here any longer." Randall said, his voice devoid of any aggression and hostility. "We're letting him go."

"Randall..." whispered Mike, reaching out and placing his hand on the lizard monster's back.

Randall stiffened at the touch and shuddered, almost ashamed of himself for letting his emotions out like this, but yet, also felt like something had been brought back to him upon being embraced by the smaller monster.

"I don't hate you anymore. And I'm sorry for it all." said Mike, going over and grabbing Randall's hand for a moment, before letting go. He didn't even notice the sad yet at the same time relived face of the purple lizard monster.

Mike quickly left the room and made a run for it, he had to get back to Sully and Boo, but yet at the same time, he now understood Randall and developed so much sympathy for the lizard monster. They had to do something about the Scream Extractor and keep Boo away from Randall, but Mike saw that within his former best friend, there's still good inside him.

A sense of hope overtakes Mike as he ran out from the secret entrance, he could possibly save Randall. He didn't hate him anymore, he felt sorry for him. He needed to fix what was broken and right a major wrong.

Back at Randall's secret lab, Randall watched as Mike left, he knew he should go after him, but he didn't have the energy to chase him. He sighed and wiped the last few tears from his eyes, before turning to Fungus.

"Come on, we've got a kid to find." was all Randall said, as Fungus nodded and followed his partner.

**The end.**

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**I guess my last story wasn't the last one of the year, go figure. Randall has done wrong, but I don't hate him for it. I really do love him immensely, I feel so bad for him after what happened at MU and as I watched the movie, I wished that something could've been done to save Randall, help him and keep him from falling onto the dark path. MU Randall gets to me, I look at him at times and wish to hug him, embrace the purple lizard monster and never let him go. I've rambled on enough, hope you enjoy the story and give me some feedback. RandallBeast19, taking flight!**


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